Bitter cold could kill a man–softly, even kindly, but very, very quickly. Most of the soldiers who wintered on the Alaska Highway in 1942/43 survived, but the survivors would never forget the miserable experience. Reading their memories today still produces involuntary shudders. A soldier named Boos spent evenings with his four tent mates huddled next …
Tag Archives: Alaska Highway in WWII
Pack Mule
Pack mule out front, soldiers of the 97th Engineering Regiment started their road out of Slana, Alaska in 1942. Technically the mule didn’t lead them because a Lieutenant named Razo led him—but close enough. A few days into the woods, the Lieutenant made the mule extremely unhappy. Link to another story “Blazing the Path of …
Two Books
Two books, We Fought the Road and A Different Race, available at Amazon, Barnes and Noble, and your local bookstore will appeal to people who enjoy my stories. Christine and I wrote them. An Epic project comparable to the construction of the Panama Canal, the construction of the Alaska Highway left behind a treasure trove …
Luck Led to Romance
Luck led to romance, not what you would expect for a soldier on the Alaska Highway Project in 1942. But some men get way more luck than others. Donald Hall had almost blown himself up applying a torch to a gas tank full of fumes. He survived. That should have told us all we needed …
Relations
Relations between Canada and its tightly coupled neighbor to the South, generally but not always good, influenced the Alaska Highway Project in 1942. Even today, the things we get up to down here don’t always leave Canadians, our oldest and best international friends, with a warm fuzzy feeling. And the things we get up to …
Inexperience and Consequences
Inexperience can have consequences. The fuel tank exploding under his bottom shouldn’t have surprised Pvt. Hall, but it did. Inexperience… Donald L. Hall drove trucks in convoy out of Dawson Creek in 1942. He negotiated the Alaska Highway at the rear of the convoy, piloting a truck full of spare parts and tools. When trucks …
Stuff, Mountains of Stuff
Stuff, simple stuff but mountains of it, caused enormous problems for Alaska Highway builders in 1942. Swarming over the mountains and through the woods carving out the Highway, thousands of soldiers consumed mountains of rations. And thousands of soldiers needed underwear, boots, coats, sleeping bags, and toilet paper and an untold number of other things …
Roy’s Eyes
Roy’s eyes focused and the image of the biggest black bear he had ever seen emerged from the darkness, two feet in front of his face. We can excuse a rude bear. They don’t, after all, attend finishing school. Roy Lee of the 140th Quartermaster Truck company would beg to disagree. Roy had spent a …
New Equipment Gets Old
New equipment came to the Alaska Highway Project in 1942, but the project aged new equipment quickly. Some of it went with the army when the soldiers moved on at the end of the project. A lot of it they just abandoned in place. On one of my stories the other night, Wayne Olstad wrote …
Deep Woods
Deep woods in subarctic Canada and Alaska not only provided a unique place for the Alaska Highway builders to work through 1942. Deep woods also provided a unique place to live. Canvas, humble, vaguely malodorous, supported life in bivouac. Canvas tents provided barracks, mess halls, repair shops and offices. Inside the tents some lucky soldiers …